What makes a good tablet app?

If you're looking to improve, good examples exist on both sides of the fence.

The Nexus 10 and Nexus 7 are both good tablets that deserve better apps.

Andrew Cunningham

In our review of the Nexus 10, our single biggest gripe about the device was that the Android's tablet ecosystem continues to lag behind that of iOS, despite its nearly two years on the market. With Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean, Google has done a good job of keeping pace (and exceeding) the competition on the first-party front, but third-party Android apps are all too often just phone apps scaled up, with no adjustments made for larger 7-inch and 10-inch screens.

But what makes a good tablet app in the first place? And what are we complaining about, specifically, when we say that Android's tablet apps are usually inferior to their iOS counterparts? The deficiencies are both aesthetic and functional—the best tablet apps not only make changes to look better than the worst ones, but they also use that extra screen space to enable (or simplify) common activities that aren't possible on a smartphone's smaller screen.

I am not going to attempt to call out every bad tablet app, nor will I try to point out every good one. Instead, I'll choose specific, widely used apps that exemplify the worst things about Android tablet apps and highlight some of the changes (small and large) that could be made to improve them.

Dropbox: A serious case of wasted space

The Dropbox for Android client's layout is one that makes sense on a phone, and it's really very similar to what the app looks like on iOS: you're presented with a big list of all your files and folders, along with some basic top-level navigation options for searching and accessing starred files. Tapping one of the folders will take you to that folder, and you can only view all of the contents of a single folder at a time.

The worst thing about this app, both functionally and visually, is the vast expanse of unused white space. Something like this isn't quite as noticeable on a 7-inch tablet, but the more space you have, the more space is wasted. For apps with a focus on navigating through files, one of the smartest ways to utilize a tablet's extra space is to add more navigation options. The Google Drive app, which takes its design cues from the generally good Gmail app, is a good example of this:

Enlarge/ A simple sidebar can make apps look much better on a tablet's screen.

Google Drive puts a persistent file navigation bar to the left so that even as users wander through their files and folders, they have an easy-to-see-and-access anchor to the top level of the drive. The Box app for Android is similar, though it doesn't allow you to preview images or documents, preferring rather to use Android's Intents system to kick these files to another app that can read them.

Enlarge/ Box for Android also has its own persistent navigation bar built in, though it relies on Android's Intents system to actually open documents, photos, and other files.

The persistent navigation sidebar doesn't necessarily improve the functionality of the app, though—Dropbox for Android does have a few persistent navigation buttons, though they aren't as easily accessible or as readable. To show how the Android app could be made better, let's look at Dropbox for iOS.

Enlarge/ Dropbox for iOS uses multiple, independent panes to make better use of real estate.

On the left side of the iPad's Dropbox app is something functionally similar to the company's iPhone app: a list of files and folders you can scroll through, along with some fixed navigation buttons on the bottom.

Dropbox for iPhone is just a small piece of the Dropbox for iPad app.

Where the iPad's Dropbox app goes above and beyond both the Android version and the Google Drive app is in its use of the right side of the screen, which serves as a giant preview pane that you can use to view your documents and images, all while the file explorer on the left side of the screen sticks around. It's a little thing, but the lack of windowed multitasking in most touchscreen operating systems means that you have to give people the ability to do multiple things any way you can. The iOS Dropbox app accomplishes this; the Android app does not.

95 Reader Comments

Now that Android has an affordable, top notch halo product in the 10" space (Nexus 10), I suspect more developers will take notice and improve their app layouts for large screened tablets. At the very least it can't hurt

I guess I'm not really sure why fragmentation should be much of an issue with app development. Sure, Android has a few different OS versions in play, but there aren't THAT many resolutions one finds on different tablets, are there? And with the same aspect ratio, generally, couldn't you simply target the Nexus 10, then scale down accordingly depending on the resolution?

Great to see this on Ars. I hope it becomes a featured series, and you put more developers on the spot to actually consider making a tablet app for Android, even if Google originally said you don't need a tablet app on Android (which was an incredibly dumb thing for them to say).

You know what else is wrong? It's that third party apps, like Spotify, aren't plugged into the voice control. That's more interesting than making sure your lists really use up all the space on a big screen.

I guess I'm not really sure why fragmentation should be much of an issue with app development. Sure, Android has a few different OS versions in play, but there aren't THAT many resolutions one finds on different tablets, are there? And with the same aspect ratio, generally, couldn't you simply target the Nexus 10, then scale down accordingly depending on the resolution?

Or is app development not that simple?

Android strives for resolution independence - I believe app developers are able to target layouts toward "large" (7-inch IIRC) and "xlarge" (10-inch) screens in their apps, rather than specifying a resolution. This also enables a single APK to render differently on multiple screen sizes (any for-real Android devs should feel free to correct me on these points, though).

Now that Android has an affordable, top notch halo product in the 10" space (Nexus 10), I suspect more developers will take notice and improve their app layouts for large screened tablets. At the very least it can't hurt

But if there is no tablet specific storefront to boost tablet optimized apps, there is only a very weak demand for tablet apps.

In other words, the value of the Nexus 10 is weakened by the lack of tablet optimized apps, while the lack of tablets weaken the demand for tablet optimized apps.

However, the lack of a tablet specific storefront means even if both exist, there is no way for people to actually intentionally prefer tablet optimized apps for their tablets!

I guess I'm not really sure why fragmentation should be much of an issue with app development. Sure, Android has a few different OS versions in play, but there aren't THAT many resolutions one finds on different tablets, are there? And with the same aspect ratio, generally, couldn't you simply target the Nexus 10, then scale down accordingly depending on the resolution?

Or is app development not that simple?

We've written GUI code for 20 years now that isn't optimized for one size and handles a wide range of sizes well. I don't think it's that, I think it's that most apps are heavily optimized for tiny screens and they need a second UI that's optimized for large screens, but they don't do that because up until recently few owned an Android tablet.

Maybe I'm weird, but this is down the list for me from other things. The worst piece of UI I've noticed so far? The B&N Nook app has alert dialogs to tell you that you're not connected to the Internet. It makes decent use of the full screen though, so by these standards it's a good tablet app.

Spotify forgets where you were in the list when you hit back. That's worse than not putting some pictures next to the list. Especially when those lists get long and you don't have home/end/pgup/pgdn.

Now that Android has an affordable, top notch halo product in the 10" space (Nexus 10), I suspect more developers will take notice and improve their app layouts for large screened tablets. At the very least it can't hurt

But if there is no tablet specific storefront to boost tablet optimized apps, there is only a very weak demand for tablet apps.

In other words, the value of the Nexus 10 is weakened by the lack of tablet optimized apps, while the lack of tablets weaken the demand for tablet optimized apps.

However, the lack of a tablet specific storefront means even if both exist, there is no way for people to actually intentionally prefer tablet optimized apps for their tablets!

That's a good point. You can check to see how people with your device felt about apps, but it would be cool if you could just filter the whole store's rating down to what people with similar screen size and resolution thought about apps.

Honestly, just finding decent apps in the play store when you don't already know about them is a nightmare. Most of my favorite apps I found out about in some other way than the play store.

regarding Dropbox, I'd hate to have my files and folders mixed together. It seems to be a more general issue, a lot of recent software insists on re-ordering and re-treeing the stuff I've perfectly arranged on my disk. xbmc's dlna server is another culprit, it has no "use the filesystem hierarchy" mode. What would make sense for Dropbox is a folder list on the left, then a preview of the file list of the selected folder, and maybe an optional preview of the selected file. Like Windows' Explorer. As it is, I'd rather have the Android version than the iOS one, ugly vs messy, I'll take ugly. 2 Columns would be confusing, too.

Regarding Spotify, and all the other apps, I'm assuming iOS's left bar functionality gets bumped into the "..." button on Android. That's actually good: it saves screen space (you know, for when devs will actually figure what to do with it :-p), and is standard. I get turned around a lot on my brother's iOS devices by the utterly inconsistent UIs. And lack of Back button... or is it somewhere on the screen ? just gotta look everywhere for i ? Finding Charlie used to be fun, when I was 6...

Regarding Twitter, the important thing to take away is that the official client sucks on both platforms, and that good alternative clients exist on both, too.

Those of you who install Swype on Nexus 7 also may notice another problem with Nexus 7. It is considered a phone and not a tablet!!

You cannot get split keyboards in Swype with out the tablet identifier and you need to root the Nexus 7 to change the identifier.

I have not checked whether that is the case with Nexus 10, but I doubt much progress willl be made on removing white spaces on Nexus 7 until it gets properly identified as a tablet and not an "over sized phone"

Speaking as a developer, the quality of an app is reflects a developer's interest in the platform, and frankly, that's why Android tablets apps suck, because there's never been an Android tablet really worth owning. The Nexus 7 does tablet apps a disservice because phone apps run "scaled up".

It takes 1 developer just a few months to make a tablet version of an app. If these companies can't even spare the resources for that, it shows you where their priorities lie. This is also the reason why Windows 8 does not and will never run Windows Phone apps, because it forces developers to create versions specifically for Windows 8.

I guess I'm not really sure why fragmentation should be much of an issue with app development. Sure, Android has a few different OS versions in play, but there aren't THAT many resolutions one finds on different tablets, are there? And with the same aspect ratio, generally, couldn't you simply target the Nexus 10, then scale down accordingly depending on the resolution?

Or is app development not that simple?

It's not the app development aspect that's the problem (see the Apple App Store, as an example), it's finding those apps when you have a tablet (see, again, the Apple App Store).

You can't filter apps to be 'tablet specific', or '10" optimized' or 'hdpi'; click on apps, education, and there's no tab for any of the tablet options I just highlighted.

If tablet apps don't get any preference, why would a developer write a tablet app? Throw them a bone and let them get special treatment, and then app developers can write tablet apps that 'rise to the top' since those that don't write tablet apps won't even show up.

Another developer attitude especially with "smaller" apps is that many developers still treat a smartphone or a tablet just as a small computer where you click buttons with a finger instead of a mouse and that's all the difference.

Many good touchscreen apps actually try to do something with the fact that the user here has objects in his hands and can handle them very much like physical objects, moving around, swiping around, dragging and swiping. In iOS you usually re-order lists by grabbing a handle on the right side of an item and drag it where you want to have it. Almost only in Android you see dreaded up/down buttons or even menu entries that require you to select an entry and then command it up or down. Or next/previous buttons instead of just swiping things off the screen. Google and many other high-profile companies seem to have gotten this now (Chrome even on iOS is better than Safari when it comes to the UI) but for many individual developers all of this seems to be newfangled nonsense for some reason.

Even in forums as here on Ars you'll meet people pretending that how an app works or looks doesn't matter as long as it has the features they desire. Combined with the fact that almost all apps scale up somewhat fine I think much of this is actually an attitude problem. The kind of sweating over small UI details up to nearly being obsessed by this is something quite common among iOS developers and quite rare among Android developers. The UI often seems to be treated almost as the least important part of an app when in fact on a tablet it's the most important one.

It's hard to see how this can change, especially when there often is something like a clear disdain for such things among vocal Android users and developers.

Those of you who install Swype on Nexus 7 also may notice another problem with Nexus 7. It is considered a phone and not a tablet!!

You cannot get split keyboards in Swype with out the tablet identifier and you need to root the Nexus 7 to change the identifier.

I have not checked whether that is the case with Nexus 10, but I doubt much progress willl be made on removing white spaces on Nexus 7 until it gets properly identified as a tablet and not an "over sized phone"

What we are seeing here is old phone apps being used for tablets but this have been largely solved since Android 3.0 "Honeycomb".

Right now you can use "fragments" to make the same application to work fairly well in both phones and tablets using the same UI pieces in different layouts, sharing screen or not depending on screen resolution.

Creating alternative XML resources for different layouts you can use the same UI elements for both tablets and handsets of different resolutions with ease.

Those fragments can be used in previous android versions with a compatibility library, so new applications - or upgraded applications - for old versions of Android can work well in both tablets and handsets.

Speaking as a developer, the quality of an app is reflects a developer's interest in the platform, and frankly, that's why Android tablets apps suck, because there's never been an Android tablet really worth owning. The Nexus 7 does tablet apps a disservice because phone apps run "scaled up".

It takes 1 developer just a few months to make a tablet version of an app. If these companies can't even spare the resources for that, it shows you where their priorities lie. This is also the reason why Windows 8 does not and will never run Windows Phone apps, because it forces developers to create versions specifically for Windows 8.

Pegged it!

Heck, with all the Android tablet's out there that are now being used as drink coasters, why would 3rd party developers invest their own resources in one particular spitball that may or may not fall off the wall?

The fragmentation in the Android smartphone market is just insane. No one in their right mind is going to optimize their app(s) for more than a handful of target devices.

The Nexus 10 may be a spiffy tablet -but that isn't the point. Is it going to have sticking power or go the way of the Xoom -that limped along at 100Ku/qtr.?

Those of you who install Swype on Nexus 7 also may notice another problem with Nexus 7. It is considered a phone and not a tablet!!

You cannot get split keyboards in Swype with out the tablet identifier and you need to root the Nexus 7 to change the identifier.

I have not checked whether that is the case with Nexus 10, but I doubt much progress willl be made on removing white spaces on Nexus 7 until it gets properly identified as a tablet and not an "over sized phone"

Isn't swype still in beta? Probably why it doesn't support everything yet.

The fragmentation in the Android smartphone market is just insane. No one in their right mind is going to optimize their app(s) for more than a handful of target devices.

This is a dumb thing to say. The existence of a lot of Android phones didn't prevent Android from getting a lot of great phone apps, and it certainly won't prevent it from getting good tablet apps. The actual problem is just limited market share, and that seems to be changing pretty rapidly.

I guess I'm not really sure why fragmentation should be much of an issue with app development. Sure, Android has a few different OS versions in play, but there aren't THAT many resolutions one finds on different tablets, are there? And with the same aspect ratio, generally, couldn't you simply target the Nexus 10, then scale down accordingly depending on the resolution?

Or is app development not that simple?

Android strives for resolution independence - I believe app developers are able to target layouts toward "large" (7-inch IIRC) and "xlarge" (10-inch) screens in their apps, rather than specifying a resolution. This also enables a single APK to render differently on multiple screen sizes (any for-real Android devs should feel free to correct me on these points, though).

Pretty much exactly. You set layouts based on size in DP (px = dp * (dpi / 160)), and assets based on the names you mentioned (ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi). Anything that isn't included in the apk comes from the next rung down.

Most tablet UIs will kick in at 600dp or 720dp.

dagamer34 wrote:

The Nexus 7 does tablet apps a disservice because phone apps run "scaled up". .

I'd prefer that to not offering the apps, or ACTUAL scaling as the iPad does. Android doesn't actually scale anything except image assets, the app is actually rending at the higher resolution.

Pubert wrote:

The fragmentation in the Android smartphone market is just insane. No one in their right mind is going to optimize their app(s) for more than a handful of target devices.

As a few of us have already said, if you aren't doing a high end game the need for targeting specific devices is near zero. You design the UI based on the two elements I stated above and you're good.

Occasionally a device is launched with incorrect settings that don't report correctly, those are the ONLY cases you'd need to design around them. Like I said, major games will deal with GPU differences more than anything - even then there are only 3 vendors for that.

Part of the problem has been one of market share and of fragmentation—many different tablets running many different permutations of many different versions of Android

You might also add many different screen sizes and resolutions to that list.

I have a drawing app out there for iOS. Creating icons for controls and so forth is easy: I need two sizes (standard and retina) and the OS will automatically load the appropriate one depending on the displays resolution. The drawing primitives use points rather than pixels, where 1 point = 1 pixel on standard displays and 2 pixels on retina displays. Finally, I can use the PDF capabilities to draw (and create) vector graphics that are independent of the device resolution.

I've been looking at developing for Android, and it doesn't seem anywhere near as easy. How many different versions of an icon will I need to cope with all the differing display sizes and dpi's? Code that uses the drawing primitives will have to take account of the screen size and dpi (OK, not hard, but on iOS you just deal with iPhone, iPhone 5 and iPad). Finally, and the killer as far as I'm concerned, there's no vector graphic capability (such as SVG) unless you want to use third-party libraries.

I wish Google would put some more effort into the API here. If it was easier to do resolution independent graphics then I'd be far more likely to develop for the platform.

But if there is no tablet specific storefront to boost tablet optimized apps, there is only a very weak demand for tablet apps.

The Google Play store is tablet specific in that it only shows apps that developers have marked that will work on a tablet. Example: Here is an app that a Google tablet user will never find on the Play store because Google filters it out. The inverse is also true.

Part of the problem has been one of market share and of fragmentation—many different tablets running many different permutations of many different versions of Android

You might also add many different screen sizes and resolutions to that list.

I have a drawing app out there for iOS. Creating icons for controls and so forth is easy: I need two sizes (standard and retina) and the OS will automatically load the appropriate one depending on the displays resolution. The drawing primitives use points rather than pixels, where 1 point = 1 pixel on standard displays and 2 pixels on retina displays. Finally, I can use the PDF capabilities to draw (and create) vector graphics that are independent of the device resolution.

I've been looking at developing for Android, and it doesn't seem anywhere near as easy. How many different versions of an icon will I need to cope with all the differing display sizes and dpi's?

Doesn't Android automatically rescale icons for you? Unless I misunderstand I think it does exactly what you want.

The fragmentation in the Android smartphone market is just insane. No one in their right mind is going to optimize their app(s) for more than a handful of target devices.

This is a dumb thing to say. The existence of a lot of Android phones didn't prevent Android from getting a lot of great phone apps, and it certainly won't prevent it from getting good tablet apps. The actual problem is just limited market share, and that seems to be changing pretty rapidly.

Keep in mind, there are virtually NO optimized 3rd party Android apps. (much less any for 'retina' type displays.) Android tablets have been available for some time now. Not much has changed.

Part of the problem has been one of market share and of fragmentation—many different tablets running many different permutations of many different versions of Android

You might also add many different screen sizes and resolutions to that list.

I have a drawing app out there for iOS. Creating icons for controls and so forth is easy: I need two sizes (standard and retina) and the OS will automatically load the appropriate one depending on the displays resolution. The drawing primitives use points rather than pixels, where 1 point = 1 pixel on standard displays and 2 pixels on retina displays. Finally, I can use the PDF capabilities to draw (and create) vector graphics that are independent of the device resolution.

I've been looking at developing for Android, and it doesn't seem anywhere near as easy. How many different versions of an icon will I need to cope with all the differing display sizes and dpi's? Code that uses the drawing primitives will have to take account of the screen size and dpi (OK, not hard, but on iOS you just deal with iPhone, iPhone 5 and iPad). Finally, and the killer as far as I'm concerned, there's no vector graphic capability (such as SVG) unless you want to use third-party libraries.

I wish Google would put some more effort into the API here. If it was easier to do resolution independent graphics then I'd be far more likely to develop for the platform.

For icons and other assets you are correct, there's more than two resolutions. You have 5 (6 technically to do, which if you have the image in Photoshop exporting 4 more isn't that tough). (ldpi, mdpi, hdpi, tvdpi, xhdpi, xxhdpi). No need to call each yourself though, Android will source the images by itself from your apk directory tree.

Drawing layouts is comparable, pixels are meaningless. You use the density-independent 'dp' units. Set your app to trigger tablet UI at 600dp (which will cover 7" tablets) and the just write to that and the default - or get more detailed and have as many as you want.

The Nexus 7 does tablet apps a disservice because phone apps run "scaled up". .

I'd prefer that to not offering the apps, or ACTUAL scaling as the iPad does. Android doesn't actually scale anything except image assets, the app is actually rending at the higher resolution.

Just that "scaled up iPhone apps" on the iPad are so unbelievably ugly that nobody wants to use (or even buy) them and app developers have right from the start developed iPad apps. The visually somewhat graceful scaling of smartphone apps to tablets on Android seems to make too many developers just think "it's good enough, why bother" and that's it then. Looking bad is much more motivating than looking fine and working awfully. Pressing the menu button over and over on a tablet with half of the screen empty *is* awful.

And again, people pretending that it's fine as it is are just helping things staying as they are.

The Nexus 7 does tablet apps a disservice because phone apps run "scaled up". .

I'd prefer that to not offering the apps, or ACTUAL scaling as the iPad does. Android doesn't actually scale anything except image assets, the app is actually rending at the higher resolution.

Just that "scaled up iPhone apps" on the iPad are so unbelievably ugly that nobody wants to use (or even buy) them and app developers have right from the start developed iPad apps. The visually somewhat graceful scaling of smartphone apps to tablets on Android seems to make too many developers just think "it's good enough, why bother" and that's it then. Looking bad is much more motivating than looking fine and working awfully. Pressing the menu button over and over on a tablet with half of the screen empty *is* awful.

And again, people pretending that it's fine as it is are just helping things staying as they are.

I'm not saying it's fine, but having the OS handle resolution and density differences elegantly is a GOOD thing in my book. What are you suggesting? Google break the resolution independence?

As a developer of a top-rated iPad app, whenever I consider porting to Android tablets, I always feel stressed. There are so many different hardware/OS/screen differences. Making a pixel perfect, optimized, beautiful app is just more bothersome on Android. It's expensive to buy lots of hardware for testing purposes. Plus, there are so many poor apps for Android (iOS is not immune, but it's no where near as bad as Android), that its easy for relatively good apps to get lost in the noise.

Add to that fact that on average, for every $1 a developer earns on iOS, they can expect about $0.24 from Android, and it starts to look less like an opportunity, and more like a giant headache in waiting.

I think Microsoft will realize the issues plaguing Android, and use the Apple model instead.

The fragmentation in the Android smartphone market is just insane. No one in their right mind is going to optimize their app(s) for more than a handful of target devices.

This is a dumb thing to say. The existence of a lot of Android phones didn't prevent Android from getting a lot of great phone apps, and it certainly won't prevent it from getting good tablet apps. The actual problem is just limited market share, and that seems to be changing pretty rapidly.

Not true. Android fragmentation has DEFINITELY prevented Android from getting a lot of great phone apps, in particular games. The differences in screen resolutions, aspect ratios, GPUs, and touchscreen sensitivities make it insanely hard to target a *good* game. For proof, pick any major Android game that uses very high quality graphics, like ME Infiltrator or Asphalt 7, and notice that you can't download that game because it "isn't compatible with your device" for a huge percentage of the devices out there. I have a Galaxy Note that is perfectly capable of running many games, but those games won't install because the developer can't test on every device, so they only allow the few devices they have tested.

This is a *huge* problem, and it isn't caused by limited market share, since Android has a larger market share and that hasn't fixed the problem. Holding your hands over your ears and going "la la la" doesn't make the problem go away.

And again, people pretending that it's fine as it is are just helping things staying as they are.

I'm not saying it's fine, but having the OS handle resolution and density differences elegantly is a GOOD thing in my book. What are you suggesting? Google break the resolution independence?

No, I'm just saying that this a disadvantage of Google's approach which also has lots of advantages. I don't think Google could do anything to ease that pain. Very much as Apple's approach has it's own disadvantages and advantages.

But I would surely wish for Android developers to take their UIs more seriously and put some ambition into them.

This might be wrong since it's been a log time since I've worked in the Android development arena (time constraints mostly) but I seem to recall that in a single apk, you can create multiple versions of your app based on general screen size. In that case you don't need a tablet specific app. You can create e new layout in the same app that only fires for a specific screen size.

The Google Play store is tablet specific in that it only shows apps that developers have marked that will work on a tablet. Example: Here is an app that a Google tablet user will never find on the Play store because Google filters it out. The inverse is also true.

This appears to be exactly the same as the Apple App Store.

Sorry but that's not accurate at all. That app you put as example is not even shown in my old Galaxy because the author have flagged it only for Android 2.2, and the Galaxy is 2.3.

This developer just missed it and used a maxSdk setting in its resource file <uses-sdk> tag, you should never use unless you are building apps for higher sdk - multiple apps (apks) for the same application that is also discouraged.

You cannot flag the application for "tablet" or "phone" in the Google Play store, you flag them for API levels and you can flag them *out* for resolution levels, but most phone apps can be installed in Android tablets - in fact most apps in Play store are phone apps.

If you don't mark your application with a <supports-screens> tag in its resource file, Android sets it in screen compatibility mode and automatically resizes it.

You can set one application as not supporting small screens in <supports-screens> if you want or even build two applications for the same API level with different <support-screens> settings but actually is an opt-out not an opt-in.

If you build one app for android 1.6 with no screen settings it will be downloadable for phones and tablets with no problem, but in the tablet it is going to look awful.

As a developer of a top-rated iPad app, whenever I consider porting to Android tablets, I always feel stressed. There are so many different hardware/OS/screen differences. Making a pixel perfect, optimized, beautiful app is just more bothersome on Android. It's expensive to buy lots of hardware for testing purposes. Plus, there are so many poor apps for Android (iOS is not immune, but it's no where near as bad as Android), that its easy for relatively good apps to get lost in the noise.

Add to that fact that on average, for every $1 a developer earns on iOS, they can expect about $0.24 from Android, and it starts to look less like an opportunity, and more like a giant headache in waiting.

I think Microsoft will realize the issues plaguing Android, and use the Apple model instead.

You are correct, it's hard to make pixel-perfect apps in Android because you may have a 2000 pixel wide display at 160ppi at one corner, and a 480 pixel wide 330ppi display at another - so positioning everything exactly isn't possible in all cases, but 2 simple tools are there to make apps look great at both ends of the spectrum.

As for noise, good apps tend to float to the top quickly in the Play store - both searches and lists.

As for Microsoft, they're moving the opposite direction as your suggestion. Windows Phone 8 supports 4 different resolutions, this up from one resolution with WP7. And Windows 8/RT is nearly limitless in it's support - and Windows Phone will only keep increasing as 1080p displays for phones launch.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.